CHENNAI: Around seven years ago, Dinesh Chhikara felt his 11-year-old son, Chirag, had been gaining weight. He spoke to his brother, Virender Chhikara, about the matter and the duo decided to enroll Chirag in an akhada (wrestling academy) at their village, Juan in Sonepat district (Haryana). Despite the state being a wrestling powerhouse, no one in the Chhikara household had pursued the sport before Chirag.
Understandably so, Chirag was reluctant to join the academy and had to be taken to the venue forcibly by his father or uncle. That continued for more than a week but once the boy made friends there, the academy eventually became his second home. A journey that started to make Chirag healthy and fit witnessed a moment to remember for a lifetime on Sunday when the now 18-year-old freestyle wrestler became only the second male from the country to clinch a gold medal at the U23 World Championships in Tirana, Albania. "It all started to make Chirag fit as we felt he was gaining weight," Virender told this daily.
Seeded No. 1 in the 57kg weight category, Chirag overcame No 2 Japanese wrestler Gakuto Ozawa in 1/8 before registering a win by technical superiority against Iunus Iavbatirov (individual neutral athlete) in the quarterfinal. He then defeated Allan Oralbek of Kazakhstan in the next round and won the final by a 4-3 margin against Abdymalik Karachov of Kyrgyzstan.
Chirag's father works as an electrician in a sugar mill while his uncle runs a handloom business. The sport demands money as wrestlers need a proper diet and other resources to succeed. The family decided to chip in, with the biggest contribution coming from Chirag's grandfather Dayanand Chhikara, a retired school teacher. "My father loves Chirag a lot and has been spending his pension largely on the boy. Be it his diet or other demands, my father has said specifically that he will take care of that," added Virender.
The final was a closely contested affair as the family members were on the edge of their seats while watching it on the UWW app on Sunday night. "His opponent took a 2-0 lead initially but he fought back. He again conceded a point but then gained two points. That proved decisive as he won 4-3. We were all nervous. Tears started rolling down my father's cheeks once Chirag won the bout," said Virender.
Given Vinesh Phogat's disqualification at the Paris Olympics for being 100 grams overweight ahead of the 50 kg final, Dayanand was nervous before Chirag’s last bout. "Chirag called in the morning ahead of the final and the first question my father asked was about the weigh-in. He was worried because Vinesh was disqualified after failing to give weight at the Paris Games." After training in his village, Chirag was shifted to the Indian Navy's Raipur Akhada in Sonepat three years ago. Since then, he has been training under coach Kuldeep Singh. "It's an Olympic weight category and Chirag is the future of Indian wrestling. He won 44 kg bronze at the U15 Asian Championship in 2018. Three years ago, he won bronze at the Cadets World Championships. This gold will augur well for his future," coach Kuldeep told this daily.
Before Chirag, Aman Sehrawat, who won 57kg bronze in Paris, had bagged the gold in the 2022 edition. Apart from the duo, woman wrestler Reetika Hooda (76kg) also captured the top prize at the event last year. Apart from Chirag's gold, the country's men freestyle wrestlers also won three bronze in the tournament as India finished fourth in the team rankings behind Iran, Japan and Azerbaijan.
"Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that Chirag would win gold one day. Seven years ago we enrolled him in the academy only to make him fitter but now, we have high expectations from him. We want him to win an Olympic medal," signed off the uncle.
What started as a way to maintain fitness has delivered unexpected results so far and Chirag will be hoping to maintain the trend.